Characters from books you HATE (that you're not supposed to!)

[Shiningdew]

I have just finished The House I Grew Up In (Lisa Jewell) and I liked it but I couldn't stand Meg, the oldest daughter.

I got the feeling she'd really, really annoy me if I knew her Smug, judgemental, bossy and mumsy.

I also didn't like Jill, of the Ruby Ferguson pony books, as a kid. She was always so intolerant of anyone nervy round horses!

Who are yours? I'm sure I have more ...

[TittyBiskwits]

Marianne was meant to be a drama queen (hence the title)

I know that. It doesn't make her any less annoying though

[lalalonglegs]

Just me being a bit Marianne-ish then - it's one of my favourite books. There is a brilliant passage where Marianne and Elinor have to withdraw with the ladies at some dinner party and the entire evening is spent trying to decide which of their sons, neither of whom are there, is the tallest for his age. You get the impression that Austen had sat through one too many of those discussions herself. Brilliantly funny.

[TittyBiskwits]

Oh, don't get me wrong I love S&S, and as a portrait of a teenage girl, Marianne is spot on She's just one of those tedious 19th Century heroines who can't stand in the rain for five minutes without nearly dying (Jane Bennett is another but at least Marianne has a bit more gumption than that wet lettuce )

[Peaceloveandjammydodgers]

Frodo Baggins in LOTR I thought he was an arrogant shit who expected everyone to fall over themselves for him because he was wealthier than them. And seriously, it took him FIFTY YEARS to get around to sorting the ring out. Lazy bastard.????But then they cast (my teen idol at the time) Elijah Wood in the films and suddenly all was forgiven

[AlmaMartyr]

I don't like Jane Eyre or Lyra Belacqua. Or Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. I really liked Emma though. We did the book at school and my teacher went on about how awful she is. I think I felt sympathy for her always trying to do the right thing but getting it all wrong.

[Lurkedforever1]

Yy to Jane Eyre. And Helen burn, weak minded fools. Agnes Grey. Fanny Price. All wallowing in their feeble minded victim complexes. Pretty much all the characters in any Eliot or hardy book, they're all twats.
I formed all those opinions at quite a young age. Reading again more deeply as an adult, I found even more reasons to hate them.

Yy to the adult Joey Bettany, massive ego complex. Just fuck off and get a life already. And the whole Swiss family Robinson.

You can't have Cathy and Heathcliffe, they weren't meant to be likeable in the book, it's only films and tv stuff that make them supposedly likeable. Edgar and his moron sister are pathetic though.

[SinisterBumFacedCat]

The main character in Liz Jensens War Crimes for the home. People said she was a refreshing narrative, bollocks. She was a nasty young girl during the war and an equally nasty old woman in a care home who should have really been in prison.

Fanny Price - ultimate killjoy!

Bridget Jones - irritatingly zany and clumsy.

Angel Clare - a victim blaming, hypocritical, bigot. Mind you I also thought Alec Durbeville was a sexy bastard which is probably very wrong Tess should have just murdrred the pair of them.

[SinisterBumFacedCat]

Oh and Noddy is a twat

[plonkie]

Pavlov, I am aghast at you not liking Fitz!! I absolutely love him. It's bordering on obsession!

[MistressMerryWeather]

Fitz is whiny and can be annoying in his constant pessimism but I love him all the same. Most of it is due to elfbark and grief.

I sometimes wanted to slap Chade for the way he treated Fitz. He would be my choice but I don't hate him.

[MistressMerryWeather]

Which book are you on Plonkie? :o

Also, for us Hobbs fans...

[plonkie]

Mistress, yes know what you mean about Chade, but I love him despite this as well!

Fitz is just so.. real! He's always got the best intentions at heart even if he fucks stuff up. He's very believable. Yes he's frustrating at times, but I love him!

I've read them all at least twice, I can honestly say they're my favourite books of all time. :-) Are you up to date too? I'm already worried about Fitz and Fools story ending :-(

[MythicalKings]

Beth in Little Women
Pollyanna
Roberta in The Railway Children
Melanie in Gone with the Wind

[Whowouldfardelsbear]

All of the core of "goodies" in Stephen King's The Stand who were so sanctimonious and made sure they kept all control of the Good side. For example having one person in charge of the government and the police force.

In fact, most Stephen King "good" females who are usually perfect.

Agree with One Day. Bloody irritating they were.

[WhoreGasm]

I must have been one of the few who was quietly pleased that whatshername dies in One Day.

[incywincybitofa]

Jane from Pride and Prejudice was annoying as well, I can see why Mr Darcy didn't like her.

Ann from Persuasion can't see what didn't make Captain Wentworth think he'd had a lucky escape from a poor choice as a young man.

I sit in the I like Jane Eyre camp though. and I kind of have some sympathy for Edward Rochester, those two are in my what's not to like list

[turdfairynomore]

Mary ingalls from little house on the prairie series
Clara from Heidi

[BestIsWestOfGallifrey]

I was just coming on to say Marianne from Sense And Sensibility too. I really dislike Scarlett O'Hara too.

[hackmum]

lalalonglegs: "You get the impression that Austen had sat through one too many of those discussions herself."

This is why I love Austen - I think we've all sat through conversations like that, wanting to pull our own hair out, and she just describes it brilliantly. She's very good on people being boring, or stupid, or self-deluding, or vain, or arrogant, or mean - all the human foibles in fact. One of my favourite bits in S&S is when the married Dashwoods, who have been instructed in a will to make provision for Elinor and Marianne and their mother, manage to talk themselves out of giving them anything at all.

I'm always a bit suspicious of people who don't love Jane Austen.

[BestIsWestOfGallifrey]

And I hated all the characters in Us, especially the wife.

[wrapsuperstar]

Jude St. Francis in A Little Life. In fact, most of the main characters. So utterly unnuanced.

Overrated novel that I fear might just win the Booker.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

"When I was doing O level English, I had to write an essay titled "Jane Eyre is a cloying prig. Discuss". I agreed. My teacher made me rewrite it"

Slight derail, but when I was doing O level music, we were taught in the same class as the CSE music students (there were only 8 of us in total), and one week, the teacher sent us off to discuss the essay for that week, the write it for homework, whilst he worked with the others.

The title was "The Organ Fuges of Bach are academic and boring - discuss" - so we discussed it and wrote essays (with examples and everything) saying yes, they were! Mr B was Not Happy with us.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

I have to agree with the Kite Runner narrator - he annoyed me stupid but yes, I also hated the book and will never read it again.

Also Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester - just couldn't get behind that whole "love story" thing either, just No.

And Jane in P&P was just wet and tedious and would have driven me mental.

The shopaholic - I read the first book, wanted to slap the heroine A LOT because she was a feckless, profligate liar; read the second book in the vain hope that she might have improved - she didn't - felt even more like slapping her so gave up. Can't read those ever again either.

[hackmum]

wrapsuperstar: have been really dithering about whether to read A Little Life. I was quite pleased to read a very scathing review in the London Review of Books, which I think lets me off the hook.